it's the (yarn) bomb

Source: Black Cat Originals via Pinterest

Exciting times! My photo of yarnbombed lamp post in Moscow has been featured on Sarah's Black Cat Originals blog. Head over and have a look at some of the others - I really really love those yarnbombed weapons.

a little affirmation in the park

Some months it just rains. And rains. And rains. This is what it has been like this April here in the Thames Valley. 

At times like this, in the brief moments of sunshine we need to share a little love. Take some time to appreciate all the beautiful things that the rain helps bring in the Spring and to share a little affirmation with our neighbours in the form of this brilliant poster. 

Our local park is a little oasis of nature amongst the suburbs. I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful spring colours and sharing a little love on one of the benches.

I hope all these things made someone else smile.

The beautiful affirmation poster is by the talented Nikki from Flair to Remember

Yarnbombing

a 'yarn bombed' street light outside Gorky Park in Moscow

I'm a bit obsessed with yarn bombing at the moment. A bit like my cross stitch protest banner, it feels like a fun but also crafty bit of rebellion. As the wonderful Streetcolor Art says,  

"some think that yarnbombing is just silly and it is fun but it is also full of soul . Our cities belong to us'

 I saw quite a few of these street lights, wrapped up in little knitted coats, around Gorky Park when we went to Moscow.  They seemed really incongruous, mainly because I had a (unrealistic) vision in my head of the bureaucracy of Russia never allowing anything like this. But they were also really gorgeous against the backdrop of the snow...

This rather refined gentleman had been given a little woollen beanie to keep him warm in the freezing temperatures.

I'm going to have keep my eyes open for any more yarn bombs on my travels. Maybe I'll have to try a little bit myself and add some much need colour to my suburban surroundings? After all, like Streetcolour says, our towns and cities do really belong to us...

You could put something really great here?

I’ve been fascinated with guerrilla craft and craftivism (craft used for activism) for a while now. I like the way it can make people think, how it can prompt conversation. But I also like how it can be used to reclaim the human environment, so full of adverts and the constant bombardment of corporate images, yet being softer than more common street art. A little bit more incongruous.

This was my first mini-protest banner, made from a kit bought from the Craftivist Collective. The area outside of Reading train station is full of empty offices and a poorly designed 1960s arcade and bus station. It is run down and deemed beyond repair. Recently development consultants, employed by the local council, have put together a master planning vision to redevelop the area – to demolish the existing buildings and build flats, offices and shops. Completely uninspiring and a development that appears to not respond to any community needs. This is a town full of empty offices, full of empty shops, full of housing that people can not afford. A problem that isn’t going to be resolved by building more market flats.

Frustrated with the planning processes for the town where I live, my protest banner is a message to ask people to think about what else can be done to regenerate towns. I also hoped it might make someone think about the space around them and what it could be, not just what property developers think it should be… You could put something really great here?

This was my first piece of craftivism/ guerrilla craft. But it probably won’t be my last. I love the way working on it focused my mind, I found it a bit of a release. And, just between you and me, I loved putting it up and reclaiming my little bit of my town.

(I originally published this on a new blog - but I have since decided to 'come home)

Things That Make Me Smile: Street Art Edition

Naked artists in San Francisco

 Jesus and the Oysters - Whitstable, Kent

 The Crane of Brick Lane, London

Recycling is good for you - Chelmsford

Mona Lisas - Monterey, California

Hurlingham Yacht Club - Putney, London

 Locks of Love - Cologne, Germany

 A message from Outer Space - Reading

 Heavenly bodies - Krakow, Poland

Shit Happens - Stockholm Museum, Sweden

These are some of my favourite bits of street art, big and small, I have seen on my travels. You can see more of my street art photographs here. 

Where is your favourite street art? If you have a photograph please leave me a link, I'd love to see them. Hope you are having a fabulous Sunday.

12 Months of Neon Love

Image Source

This is one of the most wonderful and original art projects I have seen for ages. 12 Months of Neon Love began on Valentines Day and is a sequence of twelve lyrics from well known songs made in neon lettering. One lyric is displayed each month for twelve months. The lyrics are being displayed on the roof of the Neon Workshops studio in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.  Apparently you can see them from the railway. The pieces of art are then to be auctioned off on eBay

I have got to go and see this. Have you seen it? It sounds just utterly beautiful. I love the thought of these romantic sentiments shining out above the Yorkshire rooftops.

You can find out loads more at the 12 Months of Neon Love blog

The Lock of Love

The Hohenzollenbrucke in Cologne, Germany is a rail and pedestrian bridge that crosses the River Rhine, linking Koln Hauptbahnhof with Koln Messe/ Deutz. Not a location normally associated with gestures of love, but since 2008 the bridge has been the site and sight of an unusual romantic phenomenon.


Lovers, young and old, have been attaching padlocks to the bridge and casting the keys in to the river symbolising their unbreakable love.


And the number of padlocks on the bridge has grown and grown...


The tradition of Love Padlocks is thought to originate from China, where lovers would secure locks to the Great Wall of China in the hope that their love would last as long as the Wall stands.The locks are now prevalent around Eastern Europe and their popularity is increasing.

(All photos by 'Roo Paprika', September 2010)

The owners of the Hohenzollenbrucke, Deutsche Bahn, threatened to have the locks removed from the bridge, but have now relented in the face of public opposistion.

What do you think of the locks? Romantic gestures, street art or acts of vandalism?

Somebody's Daughter

This weekend wanderings resulted in us discovering the memorial gates at the Cross Bones graveyard in Southwark, South London.




From medieval times to the 19th century, Cross Bones was a deconsecrated burial ground for prostitutes, who were denied a traditional (for the times) church burial, due to their profession and resulting social status. There are believed to be 15,000 bodies buried on the site.

Described on the Cross Bones website as a spontaneous "living artwork and memorial to the outcast dead", an unofficial shrine has grown on the gates to the site - a vibrant scene of colourful ribbons, flowers and plaques in tribute to women that have lost their lives working in more recent history.

A fascinating place, tucked in the streets of south London and whatever your beliefs, a reminder that some people in society should not be forgotten, especially during their lives.



An article in the Independent about Cross Bones

The Ipswich 'Somebody's Daughter' Memorial fund

Born to Kiln

Whilst out exploring Greenwich at the weekend, we came across this unusual piece of street art set in to a pothole on the Thames path.

I love innovative street art, I love the personalisation of place. Stuff like tagging personally leaves me cold, but stuff like this I find really exciting and inspiring.

Armed with Google, I found that it is one of a series and that the person who makes them calls themselves 'Born to Kiln'. There is an interview here on the Creative Nonconformity blog

and Born to Kiln's own Flickr feed can be found here